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physica status solidi (b)

Coherent Dynamics of Excitons and Biexcitons: Polarization and Intensity Dependence

Björn Haase, U. Neukirch, Juergen Gutowski, Georg Bartels, A. Stahl, J. N�rnberger, Wolfgang Faschinger

Published Mar 1, 1998• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A systematic analysis of excitonic and biexcitonic contributions to four-wave mixing in dependence on the polarization state and on the intensity of the exciting beams is presented for ZnSe/Zn1—xMgxSySe1—iiy quantum wells. The relative signals of excitons and biexcitons for different polarization configurations are discussed in terms of a microscopic density matrix model revealing excellent correspondence to the complex experimental data. In configurations which do not allow for a third-order contribution of the biexciton of zero angular momentum higher-order correlations are shown to become important already at densities as low as 1010 excitons cm—2/pulse.

DOI
10.1002/(sici)1521-3951(199803)206:1<363::aid-pssb363>3.0.co;2-t

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A systematic analysis of excitonic and biexcitonic contributions to four-wave mixing in dependence on the polarization state and on the intensity of the exciting beams is presented for ZnSe/Zn1—xMgxSySe1—iiy quantum wells. The relative signals of excitons and biexcitons for different polarization configurations are discussed in terms of a microscopic density matrix model revealing excellent correspondence to the complex experimental data. In configurations which do not allow for a third-order contribution of the biexciton of zero angular momentum higher-order correlations are shown to become important already at densities as low as 1010 excitons cm—2/pulse.
The contribution of bound excitons and biexcitons to degenerate four-wave mixing signals is investigated in high-quality biaxially strained ZnSe layers. For the former complexes signatures of polarization interference with free excitons are found in time-resolved four-wave mixing, whereas spectrally resolved data point to the occurrence of quantum beating. Thus this system behaves as a mixture of independent two-level systems on the one hand and three-level systems on the other. Biexcitons contribute to the signal mainly at negative delay between the exciting pulses and are identified by means of spectrally resolved measurements and by use of different configurations of the pulse polarization. Complete agreement is found between the selection rules for biexcitons (and excitons) and the experimental data.
The paper presents a description of two-pair correlations in an electron-hole system in laser-excited direct-gap semiconductors in terms of the exciton-boson formalism. The dependence of the states of quasi-particles on their angular momentum orientation is properly taken into account following group theory rules. It is shown for the example of heavy hole excitons in GaAs quantum wells that Coulomb two-exciton correlations include effective repulsion between excitons with nonzero total momenta and effective attraction between excitons with zero total momenta. They generate exciton and biexciton nonlinearities, respectively, in the exciton-biexciton system. The Heisenberg equations of motion derived are applied to four-wave mixing in the coherent mode. Two components of Coulomb two-exciton correlations were found to generate coherent four-wave mixing either separately, one at the cocircular and the other at the perpendicular-linear polarization of applied pulses, or jointly at parallel-linear polarization. General equations are obtained for the amplitude of four-wave mixing signals with time resolution in these polarization configurations, which, in the limit of ultranarrow pulses, reduce to analytic functions of time and excitation and sample parameters. These equations are used to analyze signal characteristics in every polarization configuration. The results give a correct picture of biexciton effects and the polarization dependence of coherent four-wave mixing in GaAs quantum wells.
Coherently controlled six-wave-mixing experiments on a ZnSe single quantum well are performed with different polarizations of the excitation pulses to enable or disable the creation of a biexcitonic polarization. A significant contribution of the biexcitonic polarization and other two-pair correlations is observed in the signal which is mainly modulated with the exciton transition frequency. A microscopic theory based on the dynamics controlled truncation scheme including six-point correlations is able to reproduce the experimental results.
Biexcitonic polarization excited in a ZnSe quantum well is coherently controlled with a pair of phase-locked laser pulses. The coherent control of this four-particle correlation is directly verified by observing a spectrally resolved four-wave-mixing signal in direction of the first order of diffraction of the pulse pair. By using polarization selection rules for the generation of biexcitons and changing the interpulse delay of the pulse pair the oscillations of the four-wave-mixing signal are studied at the energetic position of the excitonic as well as the biexcitonic resonance. The excitonic and biexcitonic signals exhibit a phase shift in dependence on the interpulse delay which clearly indicates the separate coherent control of the excitonic and biexcitonic polarization.
The coherent response of excitons in semiconductor nanostructures measured in four-wave mixing (FWM) depends strongly on the inhomogeneous broadening of the exciton transition. We investigate GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As single quantum wells (SQW) and AlxGa1-xAs mixed crystals. Additional to the usual phase-space filling nonlinearity, excitation-induced dephasing (EID) and biexciton formation (BIF) are important. EID leads to a strong dependence of the signal on the angle between the linear input polarizations. We find that EID persists in inhomogeneous systems, showing that the mutual density-dependent dephasing rate difference between two subsystems within the inhomogeneous distribution is strongly dependent on their energy difference. BIF is strongly affecting the cross-linear polarized FWM response. The signal for positive delay is dominated by the transitions from the one-exciton state X to the two-exciton states. Here, the third-order polarization at X-XX is not at the same resonance as the first-order polarization at 0-X. Consequently, the rephasing of the microscopic third-order polarization to the macroscopic FWM photon echo is blurred by the non-perfect correlation of X and XX energies, leading to a fast and non-exponential signal decay in delay time. For inhomogeneous broadenings larger than the biexciton binding energy, we find an enhanced biexciton binding energy, and a quenching of the oscillator strength of the unbound biexciton.
The coherent control of excitonic and biexcitonic polarization in pulse-transmission and four-wave-mixing (FWM) experiments is analysed with real time resolution. As a model system a ZnSe single quantum well is exclusively excited at the heavy-hole exciton and exciton–biexciton resonance. In pulse-transmission experiments the coherent control of excitonic polarization is shown for low excitation intensities. At elevated excitation intensities the dephasing time of the polarization is found to be strongly dependent on the relative phase of two phase-locked laser pulses which perform the coherent manipulation of the polarization. In FWM experiments the separate coherent control of the excitonic and biexcitonic FWM polarization is demonstrated which enables a coherent manipulation of the amplitude and phase of exciton–biexciton beats which are observed on the FWM polarization transients.